The Satanic Temple Is Filing a Lawsuit Against Twitter for Religious Discrimination

Back in January, Lucien Greaves—the spokesperson and cofounder of activist group and religious organization known as the Satanic Temple (yes, you read that correctly)—was suspended from Twitter for asking his followers to report a tweet by Twitter user @LaurieGatta1 calling for arson of their Salem, MA headquarters. Now, the Satanic Temple is taking legal action against Twitter on the grounds of religious discrimination.

The full story, for some reason, involves former child actor Corey Feldman. Feldman’s Twitter bio includes the phrases, “I LOVE God” and “PLEASE HELP ME EXPOSE THE #TRUTH!”, so it’s unsurprising that he would be against the Satanic Temple.

But Greaves felt Feldman took things too far when he retweeted the arson tweet and called members of the Satanic Temple “CRAZY SATANIC NUTBAGS” in another tweet (he’s a fan of all-caps, apparently). Greaves responded, asking Feldman why he supported @LaurieGatta1’s message.

Greaves’s account was then suspended for apparently breaking Twitter’s rules against target abuse, though he maintains he did not harass or abuse anyone. Of his reply to Feldman, he told Newsweek, “I don’t know if they consider this targeted harassment?” The official Satanic Temple Twitter was also suspended at that time. Both accounts have been restored since, but neither has been given the verified status that Greaves and other members of the Satanic Temple feel they deserve.

In a statement put out by the Satanic Temple, Greaves said, “The failure of Twitter to verify both accounts, which both clearly meet Twitter’s documented standards for verification, compounded by the suspension of the accounts clearly demonstrates a pattern of hostile discriminatory behavior engaged in by Twitter against The Satanic Temple. It reveals the biased human agency behind a facade of neutral and evenly enforced standards.”

Because of this, the Satanic Temple has filed legal papers citing religious discrimination with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, according to the Boston Globe. Marc J. Randazza, one of the representing attorneys, said, “Twitter has decided who it disfavors, politically, ethnically, and religiously, and they get significantly less free expression rights on Twitter than its favored groups. Enough is enough. Satanists are equal to any other religious adherents under the law, and deserve to be treated equally. If Twitter disagrees, then it should be prepared to explain why its ‘Trust and Safety Council’ believes that it should favor one religion over another—consistent with the Civil Rights laws.”

Greaves added, “To ignore Twitter’s blatant discrimination against The Satanic Temple is to yield ourselves to [a] regressive new world of acceptable online violations against Civil Liberties.”

The way the Satanic Temple describe themselves is a far cry from Feldman’s perception of them—they say their mission is “to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will.” They have also been involved in efforts to protect women’s reproductive autonomy and publicly oppose the notoriously prejudiced Westboro Baptist Church.

So far, Twitter has not commented on this whole mess. But it looks like the Satanic Temple is planning to see this one through.

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